If You Want to Stay Married - Avoid Painting

Forward with Ford - Part 3

When I was growing up, my mom painted rooms all the time. She decided it needed to be a different color, and so she just painted it. No question, no discussion - she just painted.

I happen to be married to a man who is just a bit of a control freak and he's also just a bit of a neat freak and he wants things done in just the right way. Most of the time, I'm cool with this - if we do any kind of home improvement, he takes charge and it ends up being perfectly done. It might be a bit of a cranky time between the two of us, because I'm maybe not so detail oriented, but it all works out well in the end.

Except for those times that I decide to do it all by myself.

So my kids upstairs bathroom was so, so cute when we first moved in. I'd found this great border of rubber duckies, it was blue and yellow. We painted the bathroom in two colors - bright gold/yellow on the top and a medium blue on the bottom. But then the toilet leaked and we needed to replace the floor - and my husband, curiously enough, bought a white and black check.

Which goes with nothing that was in the bathroom. (insert picture here! - oh, wait, I can't - it was ON MY CAMERA!!!) It was bipolar and discombobulated and the dark colors made the very small bathroom look miniscule. I'd replaced the really cute ducky curtain with a white liner when the first curtain ripped, and the liner was discolored and hanging crookedly.

And then someone decided to peel off parts of the border, and so it looked a bit, well, derelict. And I saw a really cute shower curtain at Target - it was a Peanuts cartoon, in black and white, with a red border. And just like that - I knew that the bathroom needed to be redone.

So I broached the idea. And it was summarily shot down. He didn't feel that it was necessary and it was too much work and yadda yadda. When he went to work one day, I just decided to go to Home Depot, buy the paint and get it done.

(I'm buying myself this t-shirt.)

 

I did post on Facebook:

Twitter update #1:

First up: removal of the peeling border. I tried to peel it off, but mysteriously it didn't peel off in the nice strips I'd envisioned. So I did a little google search and found that there are all!new!products! designed to remove wallpaper easily and effectively.

So I ran to Home Depot and bought the product, along with a gallon of white paint and a half gallon of red. My grand plan was to paint three walls white and one wall red.

I told the clerk what I was trying to do and she told me that I'd need primer under the white paint - but the red paint was going to be just.fine.with.no.primer.

Here's my Twitter update from THAT:

Yes. I did the white paint and it was great. 1 coat coverage, 2 made it perfect. But the red paint was totally a different story. I did a second coat.

And then I sent Allegra to the store with my debit card and the lid from the paint can (stuck in a baggie) and told her to get a half gallon of the same paint WITH the primer.

I did a third coat with the new paint, but it glumped and clumped and no matter what I did - one area of the wall just didn't get coverage. By then, I'd been painting for, oh, something like a hundred hours- or maybe just NINE. My neck hurt. My arms hurt. I hadn't eaten anything. And so I hung UP the new shower curtain. I laid down the new rugs.

And I just gave up.

My husband came home, took one look at it and said, "Well, I guess I should know better than to tell you no, huh?" What proceeded to follow was not all that pretty and was not aIl that fun. And then I woke up the next day and I left for Detroit. Which meant that I was, in essence, leaving him with a bathroom that needed some pretty major work - on a day that I was going to leave town for three days and leave him with the kids. I mean, I'd done three walls perfectly. And the red wall was in essence cut out and prepainted - so he'd just need to do a final coat. What more could one person want?

He called me that night and we exchanged yet MORE(!) unhappy words about the reality of painting the bathroom - he'd not yet started on it but was planning to that evening - and he was full of detail on how I'd screwed it up and made it look terrible and it was going to be a MASSIVE undertaking for him

and I hung up on him. I'm so grown up, I know.

The next morning brought a different tune. He was full of Oh, you did such a great job! as well as You saved me hours of work! and the ever popular I would have never been able to get it done without all of the work you did!

 And so now we have a fantastic bathroom.

Evidence to support to defendant's case below: (Not a very high quality, but I HAVE NO CAMERA!!!!!!)

 

Comments

[Elizabeth]

That is so cute! And yes, I could have told you that red paint either needs a separate tinted primer or primer mixed in the paint. I have been redoing Charlie's bathroom for over 6 years now. *cough* You can see the most recent incarnation on my last 2 blog posts.

Hubby hates painting. He is not handy. I have to do all the work.

[beth]

hmmmm.... funny thing... MY hubby keeps telling me NO in regards to our spare bath and I don't even want to paint! Just buy a shower curtain that actually matches!
I like your bathroom!

[Susan Haven]

I concur about following the Home Depot paint department helpers's instructions. I bought some Faux Bellagio and was going to get a trowel and follow the directions and the paint guy said that I would be much happier with the results if I just used a sea sponge. He said that the instructions made it look "too easy". My husband naturally looked all over for a sea sponge, but Home Depot was out. I bought a trowel and followed the instructions TO THE LETTER. and know what? the wall looks JUST LIKE the sample in the photo! Go figure.

Your bathroom is adorable!

[Jen]

Looks awesome!
And...sigh...the house we're buying has a kids' bedroom that is orange and yellow striped. Paint. I'm trying to decide how badly I want to paint over that disaster...

[Sherry]

And my husband refused to let me buy that Snoopy shower curtain!

[Headless Mom]

Totally came out darling!!!

I'm the painter around here. He won't even look in a room I'm painting, much less lift a finger.

[Sara]

How nice that my husband doesn't mind my painting---since I'm painting the whole. freaking. basement. right now. And saving him $1200. Or more.

[bama Cheryl]

Adorable. My husband says he's "allergic" to painting. I can't paint any more because of arthritis in my thumbs so we hire it done. No muss, no fuss, no fighting.

[Tonya]

It looks great. In ten years it will probably be a story that you both laugh about.

[Penny]

Susan if you use Kilz first as a primer it shouldn't be that bad. Can you tell that I am the painter here. If I can touch it I have painted it.

Your bathroom is adorable! Red,Black and White are such classic colors.

[eko]

This looks so good!!
I had the very same *falling out* with my hubby. Three boys with a PINK bathroom! -- and I completely agree: follow instructions AND your intuition, as my ACE hardware guy told me too I did not need a primer. The bathroom is now blue with hints of pink still poking out. I need to re-do it, and then get the dern spots at the ceiling. I have heard too often what a lousy job I did. IF the whole idea had not been shot down, I would have done an awesome job. Having to go in covertly did not make for a perfect job. I think I will paint it white, find that shower curtain and call it quits...::sigh::

[Trudy]

An 'expert' painter told me that red is THE HARDEST color to apply evenly. So GOOD ON YOU that you did all that hard prep work so well. The bathroom is awesome.

Hmm...wonder if the Hubster would redo our master bathroom that way?

;-)

[Lisa]

So funny! My husband is an engineer(see control freak in dictionary. I am not detailed oriented. Your house sounds like mine!!!

[Ann W]

What a great finished product! Whew and congratulations. I have the similar "I happen to be married to a man who is just a bit of a control freak and he's also just a bit of a neat freak and he wants things done in just the right way" clone for a husband so mostly things just stay the way they are or we wait an interminable amount of time for any changes...all way to frustrating for a small comment here. Great job on your bathroom re-do!!

[Laura H]

I love the bathroom! What a cute color theme, and how fun for the kids :) I'm lucky, because when hubby and I first married he worked as an apartment maintenance man for a couple of years (before he started playing, I mean working, with trains as a living) so when it comes to painting the man knows his stuff. And he likes doing it, so he's down for whatever I come up with. Which sadly isn't much, as we've always rented. But the house we just moved in to, the bathroom and kitchen were NASTY so we painted the bathroom a sea blue color and my kitchen a bright, cheery yellow (small room with one small window, needed BRIGHT walls) and it turned out gorgeous. He gets ALL the credit :)

[Cindy]

What a lovely theme, I'm sure your kids will really love this, the color schemes compliment each other even the shower curtain blends along very well, the look on your hubby's face must be so priceless when he saw the finish=) I wonder why most men think their wives is going to mess up the painting job.

[Sabz]

Very cute makeover!
I may just do that to my in-laws bathroom (with a different shower curtain of course) :) it looks fabulous C--

[liz]

It looks awesome.

[Brandy]

In our family I'm the control freak and the neat freak AND the one who wants rooms painted. But, I can't grip a paint brush for long (nerve damage), so I guilt the hubs into helping. My bedroom? Is still only painted on two and a half walls. It's been 4 months. *sigh*
Your bathroom looks great!

[Kay]

That is way to cute!!!

[kyooty]

In our house I run away to the island and I come home to newly painted walls. This summer it's the Bathroom Ceiling. hehehe

[Sandra]

i absolutely HATE painting with a passion, which is why we hire painters. kudos to you on starting the job. it looks great!

[addy]

Bathroom is beautiful! And ya hubbing does.not.paint. Oh lordy no - he is banned from all such things. Not that he minds ya know.

[Barbara]

hhmmmm.... I think I need to redo my bathroom now. can't wait to break the news to my husband.

[Katie]

Oops, I didn't read the rest of the post (I'm like your mom, I just paint a room whatever color whenever I want, LOL) but I just wanted to say when you said Target and Snoopy, I knew which curtain you were talking about because we have the same one! Love it! :)